Happy New Year 2011!

We arrived home New Year's Eve at about 8:50pm. We raced to the grocery store to get milk, fruit, cereal, and bread for breakfast the next morning. Then, we went to our apartment to find that Santa had visited while we were gone! What a great way to come home from vacation. We stayed up late playing XBox Kinnect. We were laughing aloud to ring in the new year. We had decided to treat New Year's Eve as our Christmas Eve, and then New Year's Day as our Christmas Day. This turned out to be a wonderful plan. Phillip was off work until January 5. The kids were out of school until January 11, and Grandma was still here. We had a lot of fun. It was very difficult to tell Grandma goodbye on January 10 after a 2 month visit. We had explored parts of Japan and Australia together, celebrated Christmas and New Year's, watched kids' sports, plays, and musical performances. We shopped, played Encore and Pictionary, worked on a Great Barrier Reef puzzle (which is still not complete), explored Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, and Indian food, and simply had a great time. It really meant a lot to us that Grandma would make the long journey here and then spend so much time with us. So, saying goodbye was not easy. Grandma and Phillip had their bus tickets from Rokko Island to the airport. It is a 55 minute ride on the bus each way, so the plan was for the rest of us to say goodbye from the apartment. But, Jacob got his own money out to pay for the bus ride. He insisted on going along on the bus for those last few minutes together with Grandma. We all have very special memories of our time together.

For the kids, CA's 2nd quarter just ended last Friday, marking the half way point in the school year. All 3 children have done very well in all classes, and all seem to enjoy learning Japanese.

Jacob started his middle school soccer season on Saturday. He played at goalkeeper for 2 games and at midfielder for 2 games. Phillip and I spent 4 hours in the cold! They won all 4 games. He just started with a Japanese basketball club on Mondays and Wednesdays. The coaches only speak Japanese, but he is going with a good friend who speaks fluent Japanese. That should help. Jacob goes to Young Life (wYLdlife for middle school) on Thursday nights. YL is led by a wonderful young couple (Scott and Alisa) here on Rokko Island. It seems to be a good group of kids.

Matthew has a break from rugby until April. He is continuing with 2 after school clubs: baseball and dodge ball. Saturday soccer just ended. He leads a very busy life with school and friends. I commented to Phillip just watching him last weekend that Matthew's 4 best friends are Japanese, Korean, Indian, and American. He is learning from them, and growing to respect differences that people bring. What an amazing learning that I hope he remembers for a lifetime. I have enjoyed having them over to get to know them a bit as well. It is good for me, too.

Jessica continues to grow up before my eyes. She is reading at the highest level in her class, and her teacher consistently reports on Jessica's leadership. I have been fortunate to be able to substitute teach in her class a few times. How fun for me to get to know her friends a little better too. She is doing jazz dance club and just finished Saturday soccer. Oh, and she finally lost her top front tooth after Grandma left. We had tried to get that thing out since early November!

Friday is culture day in first grade. Jessica just completed a book for her culture day project. She chose to teach her classmates about Christmas in the US. My role in the USA booth is to tell the children about how America gained its freedom, and then to teach them "This Land is Your Land." (I have to teach it to 12 different groups!) One mom is wearing a coon skin cap and fishing. Two moms are bringing black eyed peas on tortilla chips, buckeyes, and chocolate chip cookies. You gotta love American culture!

Thanks to family and friends for your cards, calls, and email messages. We so love keeping in touch and hearing about what is going on at home! Just remember, "No worries, Mate!"

We had a very exciting 2010, full of adventure. Phillip's year was also full of travel. He visited Canada, Switzerland, Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, Australia, and Vietnam in the last year. Wow.

No January blog would be complete without a top 10 list. So, here is one from our family.

Top 10 events of 2010 for the Maloney family

10) January 2010: The Alabama Crimson Tide won its 13th NCAA college football championship. Phillip and I were at the Rose Bowl to enjoy it, and on the phone with kids at home in Cincinnati with Grandma. We were all screaming and jumping up and down!!

9) May 2010: 6th grade play and 6th grade graduation at Terrace Park.

8) March 2010: We had a wonderful spring break with the Bradys in Fort Myers... the last annual meeting for a while.

7) July 2010: We had a great time in Maui with Uncle Chris, Keegan, and Jack. This was our first trip to Hawaii.

6) August 2010: Jacob, Matthew, and Jessica started school at the Canadian Academy, making friends with students from Japan, Korea, China, Europe, Phillipines, India, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, USA ... literally from all over the world.

5) October 2010: Jacob pitched 2 complete tournament games, and scored the winning run in one game to lead his middle school baseball team to tournament championship.

4) August - December 2010: Matthew played rugby in an all-Japanese league, and did very well scoring, tackling, and becoming friends with his Japanese teammates.

3) December 2010: Everything about visiting Australia ...snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, seeing Steve Irwin's Australia zoo, feeding kangaroos, holding koalas, walking on the Harbor Bridge, touring the Opera House,...

2) November-December 2010: Grandma visited us for 2 months!

and the number 1 event that occurred in 2010 ....

1) July 2010: We moved to Japan!! It was a tearful goodbye, but we are very blessed to have this opportunity.

Peace and Love,

Tina